Samsung Announces the Water Resistant and Ruggedized Galaxy S4 Active

The rumored Galaxy S4 Active is finally being announced by Samsung today, and it’s pretty much what all rumors have said and shown so far. It’s the ruggedized, water resistant and dust proof version of the Galaxy S4, and unlike many other “Galaxy S4 variants” this one actually has most of the same specs as the Galaxy S4 (which could mean it’s a little more expensive, too, due to the extra hardware features added on top).

The phone comes with the same quad core 1.9 Ghz Qualcomm S600 processor, 5″ 1080p screen (LCD, not Super AMOLED, which could be where they are compensating for the extra cost of the ruggedized hardware), 16 GB of storage (11.25 GB usable), microSD slot, 2 GB of RAM, 8 MP rear came (not quite the 13 MP one on the regular S4), 2 MP front-camera and 2,600 mAh battery.

The phone has a slightly metallic look, although most of the case may not actually be metal, but it should definitely be some kind of tough material to resist shocks, and it should be airtight, so no water gets inside. It has an iP67 certification which means it can be submerged in water at 1 meter for 30 minutes.

Some of the latest Sony devices have even gotten the IP57 certification which means they can be submerged at 1.5 meters, so that’s slightly better, but if you’re only afraid of dropping a cup of coffee on it or not being damaged when you take it with you in the shower, then IP67 certification is more than good enough. Considering Samsung has added an “Aqua Mode” for the camera, so it optimizes the camera for taking pictures underwater, then they should be pretty confident about the phone being submerged into water.

The Galaxy S4 Active will arrive in 3 colors: Urban Grey, Dive Blue and Orange Flare. The Orange Flare one is a color we haven’t heard about before, unless they’re referring to this red one, which I thought looked great. I hope the blue phone looks great, too, because I’ve been hoping Android OEM’s launch more blue phones on the market.

The different color models might be offered to different carriers and markets, though, so don’t get your hopes up too much. It seems to have become increasingly the differentiation of choice for carriers lately, which is quite a shame for us customers, but certainly much better than it used to be when they were changing the whole design of the phone.

There are no official release dates, but the phone should be offered for hands-on reviews at the Samsung Premiere event on June 20th.